Older than the hills, newer than tomorrow

The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and for evermore (Psalm 121:8)

 We don’t know what awaits us on any given day, let alone what the next month or year may bring. Nor do we know how long this life will last or what sorrows or joys will awaken our tears.

 But we do know there is a Love who comes to us in the great and small things of our lives, a Love who promises to be with us amid the uncertainties that surround our existence.

 And we are not alone in this knowing, which is good to know. Others have left a witness to this Mystery who haunts our days and warms our souls in odd moments when we are looking for nothing in particular.

 “I look to the hills,” writes an ancient poet who failed to share his name. The greatness of the hills awakened his awareness of a benevolent Presence who inhabited the heights as well as the valleys and anywhere else he found himself.

Most significantly, he discovered that Presence his own soul, so that he knew something ... Someone ... he could not begin to describe.

There is One who watches over you, he said, sees your going out and your return home, holding all your journeys in safekeeping because your life is more precious than you know. So breathe, the poet counsels, and know. Know that in every moment of grace and every ounce of love, you meet this Mystery, who is free as the wind, lighter than air, stronger than death and closer than your breath.

Watching, yes, but this One also comes, silent as the dawn, slipping past our guarded hearts, whispering a Love older than the hills ... and newer than tomorrow.

 Pr. David L. Miller